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Chris Lavergne

4,407 Quotes
President of Thought.is
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4,407 quotes curated by Chris Lavergne:

“The sun and earth will be my coffin.”
— Zhuang Zhou, The Book of Dead Philosophers
Tagged: Death, Earth, Last Words
“It is quite true that today a great deal of art grows out of exhibitionist impulses. Certainly some of the worst does. Maybe some of the best. It may even be possible that all art involves a certain exhibitionism at least of some vague sublimated kind.”
— Walter Ong, SLU.EDU
Tagged: Art, Exhibitionism, Liberal Arts, Reality Hunger
“By contrast, the sceptic is simply sceptical about the possibility of belief as such. Their counsel is to look at both sides of an issue and practise a suspension of judgement, or what was called an epoché, in all matters. In Philo's words, 'There is nothing firm we can say about anything.' The sceptic neither declines nor chooses, but simply suspends judgement and practises silence or aphasia. Thus, the sceptic refuses to either assert or deny that there is life after death, whether the soul is separate from the body or whether there is a heaven or a hell. In neither asserting nor denying anything, one lives in a tranquillity that is open to all forms of inquiry and an utter stranger to any species of dogmatism. Appropriately enough, it is not known how Pyrrho died, although it would be taking his scepticism too far to deny that it occurred.”
— Simon Critchley, The Book of Dead Philosophers
Tagged: Openness, Scepticism
“Alcohol's enhancement of direct face-to-face dialogue is precisely what is needed by today's technologically agile generation, magically interconnected yet strangely isolated by social media. Clumsy hardcore sexting has sadly supplanted simple hanging out over a beer at a buzzing dive. By undermining the art of conversation, the age-21 law has also had a disastrous effect on our arts and letters, with their increasing dullness and mediocrity. This tyrannical infantilizing of young Americans must stop!”
— Camille Paglia, Time.com
Tagged: Alcohol, Laws, Lower The American Drinking Age
“He was a generous colleague, never holding back a tip, phone number, or detail that could help, and could spend hours talking over the ins and outs of a story to get it just right.”
— Sheera Frenkel, cnn.com
Tagged: James Foley, Journalism
“There wasn't a clear, identifiable emotion within me, except for greed and, possibly, total disgust. I had all the characteristics of a human being— flesh, blood, skin, hair— but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning. Something horrible was happening and yet I couldn't figure out why— I couldn't put my finger on it.”
— Patrick Bateman , American Psycho
Tagged: Identity
“If we have no destination toward which we are progressing, then the only thing that motivates our movement is to get away from something threatening. We move from problem to problem, avoiding calamity as best we can, our worldview increasingly characterized by a sense of panic. Our news networks and Internet feeds compound the sense of crisis by amplifying only the most sensational and negative events, which garner the highest ratings and click-throughs, generating still more of the same. Yes, the news has always been dominated by darkness and disaster; newspapers with a dead body on the cover page sell better than those announcing a successful flower show. But now the feedback on viewer ratings is instantaneous, and its relationship to ad revenues is paramount, as once-independent news channels like CNN become mere subsidiaries of NYSE conglomerates such as Time Warner.”
— Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now
Tagged: CNN, Media, News Networks
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
— Paul of Tarsus, Romans 8:27-27
Tagged: Messianism, Time, Μεσσίαν, Bible Quotes
“Real time has no divisions at all, but is uninterruptedly continuous: at midnight yesterday did not click over into today. No one can find the exact point of midnight, and if it is not exact, how can it be midnight? And we have no experience of today as being next to yesterday, as it is represented on a calendar. Reduced to space, time seems more under control—but only seems to be, for real, indivisible time carries us to real death. (This is not to deny that spatial reductionism is immeasurably useful and technologically necessary, but only to say that its accomplishments are intellectually limited, and can be deceiving.)”
— Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
Tagged: Time, Illusionary Time
“Conscience is the inward ear that listens for the repetition of the infinite demand.”
— Simon Critchley, The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology
Tagged: Faith